


Playing the Right Song

by Shamen610



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-06
Updated: 2019-03-13
Packaged: 2019-11-13 01:39:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18022382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shamen610/pseuds/Shamen610
Summary: "I know, Tony." Rhodey softly spoke, affection evident in his tone. "But that's precisely why I signed you up to audition for lead singer at your favourite rock band."“Um, what?” Tony blinked. “Did you just say you signed me up to audition for a rock band!???”“Yes, I did.” Rhodey simply replied.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I didn't want to post this until I was done, but I read that if you post something it'll encourage you to keep going and finish sooner, so here I am posting it.

Tony was just finishing up with the specs for the latest weapons tech he had crafted for Stark Industries, when he got the call from Rhodey.

"Hey Honey Bear, you miss me already?' Tony exclaimed with a false cheeriness to his voice. There was also a hint of betrayal unnoticeable to most, but Rhodey unfortunately was not most.

"Tony," Rhodey sighed. "I'm only going to be gone for a month. It's the standard amount of time served, plus you know I already turned them down on their early offer, so I'll be back for start of semester."

This time Tony sighed. "Ya, I know..." He pouted, "I just... miss you." He mumbled out. Sometimes it sucked having a best friend that worked for the military. Especially since Rhodey was gifted enough that they wanted him even before his final year of his Master’s. He was happy for his friend's success, he just wished he could see him more—it got lonely without him there.

"I know, Tony." Rhodey softly spoke, affection evident in his tone. " But that's precisely why I signed you up to audition for lead singer at your favourite rock band."

“Um, what?” Tony blinked. “Did you just say you signed me up to audition for a rock band!???”

“Yes, I did.” Rhodey simply replied. 

"You what!" Tony screamed. He felt his heart rabbiting in his chest.

This could not be happening. Tony couldn’t possibly be able to something so absurd. Okay sure, he could sing, his mother had honed his talent for it at a young age much to his father's displeasure. But his father had managed to finally put a stop to it when he had reached an age where it had been deemed inappropriate to continue with such frivolous activities. His mother had always supported him in his talents, but it was always cancelled out by his father's disdain for them. He had gotten better about it now, but he still didn't think he could imagine singing again in front of an audience after so long. And for his favourite rock band no less- wait.

"Rhodey, when you say my favourite rock band, you don't mean to say the Ave-"

"-ngers, yeah. Their lead singer Sharon Carter just dropped out. Apparently her and Cap had a huge falling out and she quit the band. Needless to say, they're pretty screwed at the moment. So they're holding auditions for a replacement."

"Okay, what!? Sharon and Cap had a falling out?" That was news to him. "When did that happen?" Last Tony heard—according to the fan pages that he definitely did not follow—those two were still cozing it up on the daily.

"Uh, sometime last week, I think. There's not much information as to why, just a brief statement released about respecting privacy and that they're holding auditions this coming Wednesday.”

Last week!? Okay, clearly he'd fallen behind on Avengers' updates, but hey, it had been a trying week. What with Obie breathing down his neck to get the latest tech designs in, while also keeping up with his classes and trying to get time in to work on his A.I. project. Either way he'd barely had a moment to get some proper sleep in, let alone some leisure time.

"Rhodey, I can't possibly join a rock band. I mean I'm being swamped by S.I., my professors and my thesis projects! I don't have the time to start singing in a band. Besides, their lead singer was a woman! Wouldn't they be looking for somebody with a similar sound?"

"Okay first of all, I know for a fact that you're supposed to be handing in your tech designs today for S.I., because you've been complaining about it non-stop for a week now. And second of all, we both know that school's not really the issue here, you could do the course work in your sleep."

Damn Rhodey. Having a best friend who knew you well enough to call you out on your bullshit was another thing Tony noted, that sucked. But he did secretly love that someone knew him so well.

"Ya fine, maybe it's not about me being busy, but that still doesn't change the fact that I'm male and they're probably looking for someone that is not."

"Not really."

"What?" Tony blinked. He hadn't expected that response.

"Ya, they aren't particularly looking for a female. Just anyone with a unique or distinctive sound. Apparently they are using this opportunity to reinvent and change up their music."

"Oh." Well he didn't have much to say to that.

"So you don't really have much of a reason to not give it a try, Tony. You might as well audition, the worst that could happen is that you don't get it. Even just auditioning would be great for you. I know how much you miss singing. Besides, you really need to get out for a bit and have some interactions that aren't with machines. Pepper called you know, she's worried you're gonna spend the whole month holed up in your lab."

Tony felt himself wince. He'd been avoiding Pepper due to that reason for a while now. He knew that she had been trying to get him to engage in some 'healthy human relations" that didn't just consist of old men more than twice his age, that he had to meet with in order to appease Obie and the board. He had to suppress another wince at the thought. It was difficult to build relationships with people his general age. He was underage for one thing, and smarter than everyone else for the other. It didn't help matters that almost everyone knew who he was, so deciphering if people wanted to friend him for his fame, wealth, and intellect or were actually genuine was always an ordeal. He just thanked the stars that he had Rhodey and Pepper-who despite being his PA, cared just as much about him as Rhodey.

Pepper was a godsend whom he had met just under a year ago, when he went from unofficial to official head of the R&D department. She was assigned as his Personal Assistant, and although he'd never met her in person, she'd been seeing over all his agendas with S.I. since then. From day one, Pepper never took any of his shit, she treated him the way Rhodey did while still managing to be professional all at the same time. He'd never known anyone quite like Pepper, and his fondness for her seemed to translate both ways. It didn't take long before Pepper had to get in touch with Rhodey due to Tony's bad habits and after, the two had hit it off and now had regular calls to discuss Tony's said habits.

Which is precisely why he'd been avoiding Pepper lately. He knew she more than Rhodey would be on his case about getting out and making friends, and he did not want to bother with any of it.

Tony let out a sigh and ran his fingers through his hair, when a thought occurred to him.

"It was Pepper’s idea wasn't it?"

"She was the one to propose it, yes."

"Ok. Fine. I'll go. If for no other reason than to get you two off my back for a while." If pepper was involved the easiest thing for him was to just agree and get it all over with.

"You know we'll always worry Tony," Rhodey said with a soft voice, "but yes this will help."

With that said, Tony resigned himself to his fate and proceeded to start preparing for his audition.

. . .

Tony could not believe he was about to do this. He should have put up a better fight when Rhodey was trying to convince him.

He sat at one of the tables dispersed around the room of a club the Avengers often played at. The auditions had started at noon and once everyone had registered, they'd all been ushered into the room. The room contained all the Avengers band members sitting at a long table facing the stage. Once everyone had been ushered in, their manager, a man named Phil Coulson, had given a brief introduction and explained the process.

They were to be called up one at a time to the centre stage, where they would first introduce themselves and then be asked a couple of questions before they had to sing a song of their choosing. After going over the candidates, Phil would later get in touch with whomever they selected.

They were currently going down said list of candidates and as Tony was one of the last to register, he'd been sitting at the table waiting. While waiting he shifted his focus from the auditions to the judges themselves.

Sitting at the left end of the table facing the stage was the drummer of the band who was known as Hawkeye. He was notorious for doing tricks with his drumsticks and throwing them with scarily good precision at fans who were being terrible. Despite the antics he had quite the following as he played both the drums and electric keyboard beautifully even while needing hearing aids for being nearly deaf in both ears. Tony felt a strange kinship towards him and couldn’t quite help but like him.

The next person sitting at the table was the person known as the WINTER Soldier. Tony wasn’t sure where he got the name from, but fans mostly just referred to him as WINTER. He was well known amongst the fans for his wicked metal arm. Tony found himself salivating at the thought of getting a chance to take a look at it and improve upon it. It was an intriguing piece of work, and something tony had never seen on any other amputee. WINTER himself was very secretive about both it as well as himself, so not much was known about either the arm or him. He was however, known for being the bass player and musical genius behind the band. He along with Black Widow, who was sitting at the far end of the table, were both the creative forces behind composing the music. Widow herself was also a popular DJ. But in the band she either played electric violin or electric guitar. 

The final member at the table sat beside Winter and had the odd stage name of Captain America. It was a name that only a man like him could pull off. The man carried a presence that captivated the attention of everyone around him. He had an inane talent for inspiring people with the words he wrote as the main lyricist of the band. As the lead guitarist of the band he was probably the most popular (but honestly that could just be Tony’s bias speaking). Cap-as fans often called him-was the man of Tony’s dreams. Tony could tell from the songs that he wrote, that Cap was an earnest person, who laid his heart on his sleeve and was just so very good to the core. Tony hadn’t met many good people like that in his life and couldn’t help how drawn in he felt by Cap. 

Tony was abruptly brought out of his longing gaze towards the Captain, when he saw those deep blue eyes turn to meet his dark amber ones. He quickly avoided Cap’s gaze and brought his attention back up to the front, and was startled to see the girl who had signed in just before him make her way down the stage. He blushed as he realized that they had actually been calling his name to come up on stage and he had been too engrossed in his thoughts of Cap to pay attention. 

'Well that explains why Cap had turned to look at me' Tony thought, as he was now the last person to in the room left to yet audition. 

“Um, Tony Stark? Can you please head up to the stage to begin your audition?” said the manager, Phil. 

“Yes!” Tony replied as he scrambled up from his seat and quickly got up the stage, proceeding towards the mike. 

Steeling his nerves, he brought forth his signature Tony Stark public persona and took the last step towards the mike. 

. . .


	2. Chapter 2

Steve was bored. His day had started out well enough, what with his morning routine of an early jog and some quality time at his favourite cafe getting a couple of sketches completed. But it had all gone down hill when he had sat down at a long table with his fellow band members to listen to a series of dull and unoriginal auditions. The auditions themselves weren’t bad per se, just lacking that unique flavour of sound that he was looking for. 

Sharon had been amazing in their little group but she was gone now and they wanted, no he needed a sound that was different than what they had before. 

He had thought that they would have found something at least remotely unique enough to work with, but so far they had practically gone through the entire list of hopeful lead singers and had nothing to show for it. 

Steve was ready to call the whole thing a bust, gather up his shredded dignity, and try approaching Sharon to give them another go-when Steve noticed that the final auditionee had yet to approach the stage despite his name being announced. He turned to take a look around the now sparsely occupied room, only to find dark amber eyes staring directly at him. 

The man-Tony, as Phil was announcing in the mike-seemed to all of a sudden come to an awareness that Steve had met his eyes and abashedly turned his head. His interest piqued, he watched in amusement as the flustered man flung himself up and all but dashed to the stage. 

Just before approaching the mike, Tony’s posture changed and exhibited a confidence to his stride. Steve raised a brow-the change further piquing Steve’s interest. As he walked the last couple of steps to the mike, Steve decided to get the ball rolling and immediately stated,

“Name, age, and occupation.” 

“Ironman, 19, and uh... student? That counts as an occupation right?” Tony replied with minimal hesitation. 

Steve blinked. He had not been expecting... whatever that was. 

“Uh did this guy just say his name is Ironman? Like that’s his actual name?” Clint exclaimed, up from his spot at the end. 

“It’s obviously his stage name Clint, Phil just said it was Tony.” Nat said. Steve saw her roll her eyes at Clint in fondness, before directing her narrowed gaze towards Tony. “It seems the guy came prepared.”  
“Ya and the guy also came ready to sing, if you wanted me to get started on that anytime soon, instead of asking pointless questions.” Tony drawled, the epitome of cockiness. That pulled at something in Steve. He was never good at listen to authority himself, but people seldom went up against them; Tony’s attitude was quite intriguing. 

“Huh. Little dude’s got a little bit of spunk to him. ” Bucky raised his pen towards Tony, “Gotta give him some points for that.” he finished as he leaned back in his chair. It seemed Tony had piqued the interest of the rest of his band mates as well. That was why they worked so well together, Steve and his team had gone through a lot together and in terms of people they were often wary but when they weren’t, they always seemed to be drawn to similar people. 

“Okay then Ironman, show us what you got.” Steve said. Let us hope his talent matches his attitude. 

Tony gave the signal and music started to play, and a deep baritone voice filled the room.

“I want love, but it's impossible  
A man like me, so irresponsible  
A man like me is dead in places  
Other men feel liberated

I can't love, shot full of holes  
Don't feel nothing, I just feel cold  
Don't feel nothing, just old scars  
Toughening up around my heart

But I want love, just a different kind  
I want love, won't break me down  
Won't brick me up, won't fence me in  
I want a love, that don't mean a thing  
That's the love I want, I want love

I want love on my own terms  
After everything I've ever learned  
Me, I carry too much baggage  
Oh man I've seen so much traffic

So bring it on, I've been bruised  
Don't give me love that's clean and smooth  
I'm ready for the rougher stuff  
No sweet romance, I've had enough”

An Elton John song, but Tony had sung the song with such a raw emotion and desperation that Steve almost believed it had been written specifically for him. It was not easy to take an Elton John song and make it sound like your own, but Tony had managed to do it. Steve was impressed. If they had a voice like Tony’s to work with, Steve could almost imagine the new direction they could take their music and lyrics...

This was it. This was what Steve was waiting for. Tony had such an unexpected voice, but it was a voice that was so unique and mesmerizing that you couldn’t help but get lost in it. But most importantly he had a voice that Steve knew he could work with. He was already imagining writing lyrics for that voice to bring to life on their stage. 

The rest of his band mates were clapping in evident enjoyment, and Clint even let out a “Damn, dude!”, so he was confident that his team was on the same page as him. However, they did have to come together and discuss specifics before he could proceed or say anything to Tony. 

At the end of the applause, Steve carefully spoke. “Thank you for the performance Tony, we’ll get in touch with you when we come to a decision.”

“Uh, okay. Thanks, I guess.” and with that Tony left the stage and headed out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ugh I really hate how I ended the chapter and I wanted it to be longer, but It was driving me crazy so I just had to post it. Sorry. Hopefully it's ok enough. I'll definitely come back and fix some stuff up at some point. 
> 
> Also you guys should check out the song, RDJ stars in the music video!

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone is interested in being a beta, pls message me. I really need someone to just read over my work to catch any mistakes or even give me suggestions. Including this chapter I posted!


End file.
